Climbing Trees
by Flames101
Summary: The team, plus significant others, are invited for a Thanksgiving weekend at Dave's cabin in the woods. During a scavenger hunt Reid and Maizy (OC; Jack's teacher) break off from the group. And Reid ends up hurting himself. Morgan offers up some insight on Reid's predicament. Deleted scene from Amazing Grace (don't need to have read). Info on the 2014 ProfilerChocieAwards w/in.


**A/N:** Hey guys! So, this is a Morgan/Reid deleted scene from one of my other fics Amazing Grace (fits in chapter 17, for anyone who's wondering). Though, it can definitely be read as a standalone one-shot.

**The summary basically:** The team, including significant others, have been invited for a Thanksgiving weekend at Dave's cabin in the woods. During a team vs. team scavenger hunt Reid and Maizy (an OC; Jack's teacher) break off from the group. And Reid ends up hurting himself. Morgan offers up some insight on Reid's predicament.

Hope you'll give it a chance and enjoy!

Also, check out the end for some info on the 2014 Profiler Choice Awards.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Criminal Minds.

**Climbing Trees**

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><p>"… And then Morgan decided to use his desk stamp to stamp his stupid name all over my Charles Dickens first editions. So I took some hydrochloric acid and—"<p>

Reid stopped abruptly. He'd been retelling the tale of his most recent prank war with Morgan where it had ended with Morgan's coin collection ruined (just like his books) and consequentially a discussion with Hotch. That talk with Hotch had been a blessing in disguise. It had led to his first meeting with Jack's teacher, Maizy Tibbs, to discuss him tutoring Jack. And now Maizy just happened to be his current conversation companion. Only, she'd stop listening.

Maizy stared down into her lap, dark waves of her long hair obscuring her face. Whether she was just staring off into space _or_ contemplating his sprained ankle that happened to be sitting in her lap with a bag of ice on top, he wasn't sure. He hoped it wasn't the latter; it wasn't her fault, after all.

Actually, he hoped she wasn't thinking about a certain Unit Chief's interruption of their first kiss.

Tentatively, he reached a hand out to brush the strands back off her face. Even though they had shared a kiss, he would still be careful with her. Reid had gotten the distinct impression that this sort of thing—intimacy—wasn't the norm for her.

"_And…_ you're not listening," he said, making sure to inflect some humor into his tone. A lot of people stopped listening to him, after all, so he didn't blame her. Sometimes he could go on an endless babble without even realizing. Only, since he'd met her she'd yet to do that, so her silence worried him.

"Hey, are you all right?" he asked when he got no response.

"Oh!" Maizy gasped out in surprise. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine… I was just thinking…"

He sighed. It was Hotch, wasn't it? Somehow the other man always got in the way between him and Maizy. He wasn't liking it one bit. "About…" he prompted, hoping she'd tell him the truth.

"About… your ankle!" she blurted out, looking stricken all over again. He thought they'd already established that it wasn't her fault and that he was fine. Guess not. "I am so, so, so sorry, Spencer. I can't believe I suggested we climb a tree."

"To be fair, you didn't suggest falling out of it," he kidded.

"I might as well have," she pouted.

He took her hand in his, giving it a slight squeeze. "Maizy, that was a joke."

"_Oh,_" she said. "I'm so—"

He put a finger to her lips to stop another overflow of apologies. "I know. But for me, can we just forget it?"

She looked dubious, but the cabin's front door opening and closing interrupted her chance to protest some more, thankfully.

"So this is where you two ran off to!"

They turned around to look over the couch to see that Morgan had returned alone from the scavenger hunt.

"We won, by the—Whoa! What happened to your ankle?" Morgan exclaimed.

Reid grimaced as Maizy looked guilty all over again.

"It's a long story," he replied grudgingly.

"I'm going to go get fresh ice," Maizy mumbled, not meeting anyone's eyes. She was out of the room in a flash.

Morgan looked after her. "Was it something I said?"

He shook his head. "She feels guilty about this." He gestured at his swollen ankle propped up on a pillow Maizy had found.

"What happened?" Morgan asked again.

Reid explained for the second time that afternoon how Maizy had attempted to introduce him to the wonders and fun of nature. How she'd climbed a tree to its lowest branches and encouraged him to try to do the same. And how he'd fallen flat on his butt, but not before twisting his ankle painfully on the way down.

Morgan grimaced. "Let me have a look."

He took Maizy's vacated seat on the couch and gingerly took Reid's foot between his fingers. Reid hissed at the slight pressure Morgan applied here and there. "Well… it's not broken, but you've done quite a number on it."

Morgan replaced his poor foot on the pillow and looked at him with an exasperated expression on his face. "Climbing a tree. _Reid?_"

Reid looked down sheepishly. "I know, stupid, right?"

"I'm happy for you," he was surprised to hear a moment later.

He looked up sharply to see Morgan grinning. "You're happy that I twisted my ankle?"

"No, genius!" Morgan said laughingly. "I'm happy you're so in love."

_What?_ "In love?" he squeaked out, not accustomed with saying such things. "With Maizy? I haven't known her long enough."

"Trust me. You only do stupid things like climbing trees when you're _crazy, stupid_ in love. Again, trust me, I know about these things." He gave Reid's ankle a pat that sent a sharp pain up his leg. Totally intentional, Reid thought.

He glared at Morgan. "Oh really, what stupid thing did _you_ do for Emily?"

"Let's just say it involved a needle and some ink, and a very tender spot on my body…"

Reid winced and then pushed on, not really comfortable thinking about his best friend's tender body parts. "Anyways, I didn't climb the tree because I'm in love with Maizy; I climbed it because she suggested it and I wanted to show her I could."

"Uh huh, uh huh… same difference," Morgan replied infuriatingly.

He sensed he was fighting a losing battle so he manoeuvered the conversation back to his mangled ankle. "So, how long do you think I'll be out of the field for?"

"Seriously? Reid, it's fine. You'll be right as rain by the end of this weekend," Morgan replied, standing up to go.

"What does that even mean?" Reid pouted.

"It means no more climbing trees, Spencer, not even for pretty girls you—" Reid shot him a warning look. _"—like_."

He smiled at that. As Morgan walked away, Reid said to himself. "I _do_ like her, a lot."

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><p>Well that's it for this one-shot. Hope you enjoyed.<p>

And here's the info about the PCA's:

**The 2014 PROFILER'S CHOICE CRIMINAL MINDS FANFIC AWARDS are back! Calling all CM readers and authors! Join us in celebrating the best of the best CM stories for the annual Profiler's Choice CM Awards! Help us and let your voices be heard. Please check out the nomination ballot and rules at the****ProfilerChoiceAwards2014 Forum**** (Direct Link also in my profile). All rules and information are on the forum. Nominations begin November 15 and are due December 31st.** **Good Luck! **

As an added bonus: **We encourage all nominations (rules permitted). We accept ballots starting at one nomination, however, all ballots with five or more nominations will be entered into a drawing for one of three Amazon gift cards. Nominations run until 11:59EST on December 31, 2014. The final ballot will be published in early January 2015.**


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